


Three's A Crowd

by SioDymph



Category: Guardians of the Galaxy (Movies), Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Family, Found Family, Friendship, Gen, budding friendship
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-04
Updated: 2018-08-04
Packaged: 2019-06-21 17:46:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,172
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15563130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SioDymph/pseuds/SioDymph
Summary: "It was supposed to be a simple mission. Go to Terra. Pick up some snot-nosed little brat named Peter Quill. Bring him to Ego, wherever the hell that was. Make a shit-load of money."(An Alternate Universe where Rocket and Groot picked up Peter instead of Yondu.)





	Three's A Crowd

**Author's Note:**

  * For [danvssomethingorother](https://archiveofourown.org/users/danvssomethingorother/gifts).



It was supposed to be a simple mission. Go to Terra. Pick up some snot-nosed little brat named Peter Quill. Bring him to Ego, wherever the hell that was. Make a shit-load of money. How hard could it be? It was just baby-sitting.

Unfortunately… nobody told Rocket or Groot that the kid they were picking up was a complete basket-case. The kid was a total mess. All screaming and crying and kicking and punching, lots of punching.

“Holy shit kid! Will you just calm down alre-”

Rocket had been reaching out a hand only to have it slapped out of the way.

“No! Stay away! Get away from me!” The kid shouted hysterically. Backing into the corner of the ship like some feral animal.

As soon as he had been teleported on-board the kid had taken off running and shouting. Working together, Rocket and Groot had corralled him into one of the storage rooms but Peter didn’t look like he was going to cooperate. “Don’t touch me!”

Groot gave the boy a sad face and reached out a hand. “I am groot?”

“I don’t give a shit who you are! Stay away from me!” Peter cried out, hitting Groot’s arm repeatedly until he finally pulled back.

Turning to Rocket, he made a winning noise as he rubbed his assaulted arm and looked back to the boy.

“Yeah? Well what do’ya want me to do about it?” Rocket groaned. The kid had been on board for a total of four minutes and already he was more trouble than he was worth.

Maybe they could leave him in here for a while, let him cool down? Then after getting some shut-eye they could start again fresh. They hadn’t even gotten the chance to tell Peter what they were doing, as soon as he’d been transported to the ship he was in fight-mode. He doubted the boy had remembered a word either of them said. But maybe he’d be able to shut-up and listen in a couple hours?

Not willing to come up with another plan, Rocket tugged Groot towards the door. “Come on! Kid wants to act like a spaz, he can act like a fricken’ spaz. We’ll deal with this later.”

Groot was stubborn to move, he even tried to give Rocket his sad-eyes, but eventually Rocket got him leave with the promise that they’d talk to the kid after he calmed down.

However, as soon as Rocket had the door open, the kid was off like a flash out of the storage room and down the connector hall.

“Hey! Where the hell do you think _you’re_ going?!” Rocket demanded, immediately going after the boy. As he ran, he whipped back around to Groot. “Go put locks on everything! And disable anything he can get his grubby little hands on!”

“I am groot?”

“No I don’t need any help! He’s just one little kid, how much trouble could he be?” Rocket shouted as he bolted after the kid. It looked like he was heading for the same room he’d been transported in, shit.

“I am groot!”

“Yeah? Well nobody asked you! Just make sure he can’t get off the ship, or break anything important.”

“I am groot!” Groot replied with a huff as he began walking to the cockpit to put the ship on lock-down.

Rocket caught up with the boy in his workshop. Peter found one of his digital drawing panels and was holding it like a life line. The kid must have thought it could control the ship. He kept furiously trying to type and pressing random buttons. When nothing happened he started punching it.

“Hey! HEY! Hands off! That’s expensive!”

But the kid could hardly care. He just kept hitting it and typing in stuff like ‘ _Return to Earth. Take me to Earth!! Take me home.’_

“Knock it off will you?!”

“NO!” Peter shouted, hitting it a couple more times before looking at Rocket wildly. “If… If you don’t take me back to earth, right now, I’m gonna break this!”

“What?!” Rocket couldn’t believe this kid…

“Take me home now or I’m busting this thing!”

“Ugh! I’m not putting you back on Terra! So just stop being a little twerp and put that thing down!” Rocket’s patience for this brat was thinning by the second. “We are not doing this, just give up already! You’re not going back!”

Peter looked at Rocket dead in the eyes. Staring at him. Daring him.

Then he threw the panel at the ground as aggressively as he could.

It didn’t break completely. The screen cracked and one of its corners got crushed in, it would still work. But as soon as that panel hit the ground Rocket saw red.

“That’s it!”

Rocket felt something prickle on the back of his neck. And just as he was about to lunge at the kid a giant wooden arm grew in between them.

“I! AM! GROOT!”

All at once whatever fire burning in Rocket was being doused, and when he saw the scared look on the kid’s face he knew the kid was losing his fight too.

“Who? … What the hell _are_ you people?” Peter asked, breathing heavily, lost.

“I am groot.” Groot answered softly.

“Come on…” Rocket said, still breathing a little weird from their almost-fight. “Let’s get out of here, kid. Groot and I, we’ll explain everything to ya’.”

Rocket was still pissed. Because of that brat now one of his favorite drawing panels for blueprints had a shattered screen. But at least the kid had finally calmed the fuck down. And as the trio left his workshop, Rocket remembered just how lucky he was to have Groot around. Odds were, he’d never be able to run a job like this without him and his eons-worth of patience.

They took Peter up to the cockpit so he could look out the window, really take in space in all its emptiness. As they were fighting their ship had already gone through a jump and left Terra far behind. Up there, they told Peter everything they knew. The Ravager’s deal. Ego. The trip. Peter listened with some confusion, and a little curiosity, but mostly a numbed-shock.

“My mom… My mom kept saying my Daddy was going to come for me… Right before she-” Whatever Peter wanted to say next he stopped himself, curling up into a ball in his chair.

“Oh, so this Ego-guy’s your dad?” Rocket asked. He honestly hadn’t put two and two together. Ego just made it seem like he was looking for some kids. Not his own son.

But Peter didn’t answer. He just sank down into his chair looking sullen. Apparently he was done talking.

Eventually they left to go get some food from the storage room. The kid looked thin as a rail, Rocket noted, and they tried to get him to eat. But even when quiet Peter proved to be stubborn little shit. He did eat a little, but not nearly enough to put Groot at ease, if the sad eyes he kept giving Rocket were anything. And when they finally got the kid to lie down and get some sleep that worried-look had yet to leave Groot’s face. Rocket told himself he didn’t care, but even he made sure to leave an extra bag of snacks next to Peter as he fell into a fitful sleep…

In those first couple days Peter kept to himself. Staying quiet as the dead and listening to his terran music with his headphones blocking out the world. He’d find these hiding spots throughout the ship. Under Rocket’s workstation, the weird gap behind the pilot’s seat, pretty much every nook and cranny on the engine room. As long as he wasn’t breaking anything Rocket didn’t really care. At least he was staying out of the way.

One night though, Rocket woke up to hear the kid bawling his eyes out. Again. Grumbling, he was just about to get off his cot when he heard Groot speaking gently.

“I am groot.”

There was a couple sniffles, then he heard an indignant little reply. “What- what the hell does that even mean?”

“I am groot…”

Rocket jumped down and joined the two. Groot was sitting next to the kid who was curled up into a ball on his cot. Refusing to be touched by anyone. “He said, ‘It’ll be ok.’. If you really wanted to know.”

“How do you know that?” Peter asked.

Rocket gave Groot a look before trying to explain. “You live around him long enough, you start to pick up what he’s saying. It’s kinda weird, and it takes time.”

Peter shook his head. “No! I mean how do you people know it’s going to be ok? It’s never going to be ok ever again!”

“I am groot?”

“Now he’s asking why you’re so sure-”

“Because I stuck in outer space with a _talking raccoon and a tree_!” Peter shouted, pulling his legs even tighter to his chest. And something seemed to break in his voice. “I’m never going to see my home again! And- And I’ll never see my mom again!”

When Peter started sobbing again, Groot stretched one of his arms out to hug the boy. And this time Peter let him, not even caring about being touched. If anything he actually listed towards Groot’s arm.

Rocket just watched the whole ordeal. The kid was right though. Terra was far behind them now. But he really hated seeing this kid all mopey. It made his face real ugly and he’d make these pathetic noises. That wasn’t the real reason but those were the only ones Rocket let himself think about. No point in admitting he could be getting attached to this kid they were eventually going to leave behind.

Still, Rocket wanted the kid to stop crying just as much as Groot. “Hey? If it makes you feel better Terra’s a dump way out in no-man’s land. You’re better off without it. And hey! Maybe this Ego-guy might come back and pick up your mom too! I mean, if he actually liked her enough to go have a kid with her and all.”

Peter shook his head and his whole body trembled. “-Can’t! She can’t! My mom was sick for a long time… That night, when you guys took me? That was her last- She-” He kept hiccupping as he tried to talk and eventually he just started crying again.

But Rocket finally connected the dots. “So you mom… She ugh- passed?”

Peter didn’t answer, only crawled a little closer to Groot who slowly moved to hug the boy fully.

“Did you have anyone else to look after you? On Terra?”

“My grandpa.” Peter said with a whimper. “But he left me in the hallway. And he wouldn’t even let me come back in…”

“And that’s why you ran out into the woods?” Rocket concluded.

Peter nodded before hiding his face away.

The rest of the night, they stayed by Peter’s side. Talking softly, letting the kid rant, letting the kid cry. And when he finally fell back asleep his face had been wet with tears and a weird pit formed in Rocket’s guts. He really didn’t like seeing this kid so sad…

By morning though, it seemed like something finally changed. For starters Peter joined them up in the cockpit. He still had his headphones in but he made no move to go scurrying under the seats. And for the first time in the entire trip, Peter was the one to begin talking to them, not the other way around.

This trend continued on for several days. And one night in particular, Peter looked up at Rocket as they both climbed onto their cots to rest.

“You know I think I actually like you guys.”

“Woah really?”

Peter nodded as he crawled into his bed. “Yeah, you guys never give me crap for listening to my music all day. And it feels like we talk about real stuff. Not just trying to keep me distracted. Like you guys really want me around…”

For once, Rocket wasn’t sure how to respond. On one hand, he kept trying to see this kid as just a paycheck in the making. However the more time he spent around this kid the more he felt like something was growing. Something that really shouldn’t be growing towards a kid he’d probably never see again…

As they got closer to Ego, these doubts in Rocket’s mind only seemed to get worse. And despite never saying anything to Peter, the kid figured out that they were almost there. He started getting all mopey again and tried hiding all day. And while one part of Rocket almost preferred this, it could make saying goodbye all the more easier, another part of him just felt hurt even worse.

Still though, he had a job to do, and he planned to do it. He had a deal to finish.

 

At least that was what he thought before. When they were just days away from Ego, a Ravager warship suddenly came down on them and blocked their path.

Not even getting time to reply over radio, a figure was teleported on board. A man with blue skin and a metallic fan imbedded into his scalp. And an arrow in his quiver that had decimated thousands…

“Gentlemen.” The man said, speaking with a twang unnervingly similar to a dialect of English on Terra’s southern US region.

“Yondu.” Rocket replied currently. “What are you doing here?”

“And I take that one’s Peter.” Yondu chose to ignore Rocket and gestured to the boy. The boy in return stuck his head out from behind Groot to give him a scowl. “Nice kid you got there.”

“Fuck off!” Peter shouted.

Yondu seemed hardly phased though. He just leered at the kid, grinning. “Hear you’re Terran. And you know what they say, Terran’s good eatin’. Especially the little ones.”

With wide eyes and suddenly much paler, Peter ducked down behind Groot. And when Yondu started to laugh Groot gave him a judgmental look.

“I am groot.”

“Yeah? Well I thought that was pretty funny. Why don’t you go take terran-boy there for a walk?” Yondu replied with a grin. Only to have it melt away as he looked back to Rocket. “We got something we ought to talk about.”

Groot looked unsure, but Rocket silently waved him and Peter out of the room. And once they were completely alone Yondu breathed a heavy sigh. It was almost like watching a transformation. One moment he was a ruthless, somewhat-charming Captain of the Ravengers, the next he was this sunken, haunted man.

“Alright what the hell is going on here?” Rocket demanded. “I thought we had a deal. You wanted me to help you grab a kid off Terra, I grabbed the kid off Terra. I did everything you asked me to!”

Yondu let him speak, but when the time came for answers he stilled seemed reluctant to talk. “I’ll give ya’ credit, you did your job… Problem is I don’t think even _you’d_ wanna go through with this.”

“What the hell’s that supposed to mean?” Rocket snapped.

“That boy.” Yondu said. “You like him?”

Now that he was put on the spot Rocket felt his confidence falter for a few seconds. How did he feel about Peter? How did he really feel? “I don’t know. He’s a good kid, has a lot of fight in him. Thinks he’s real smart and sometimes he’s right. He’s not the worst kid in the galaxy. But it’s not like I’ve been going outta my way to bond with this kid, especially since we’re supposed to be dropping him off soon.”

Ever since Rocket saw the Ravager’s ship, a piece of doubt had begun growing in him. “We are dropping him off soon, right?”

Yondu leaned in close, voice barely above a whisper. “If you care about that boy you’ll keep him away from Ego. He ain’t what he seems and that’s all I’ll say about that.”

Rocket was at a loss for a second. “So what the hell am I supposed to do with him?! You realize how much time I’ve spent dragging him across the cosmos!”

“Drag him through more! I don’t care what you do make sure Ego doesn’t find’em again!” Yondu snarled, still keeping his voice low. And after a moment Yondu sighed and tried to calm down. “Alight, if you really don’t want the kid I can take him in. Ravagers ain’t a real family but we stick together. I can find some place to put him.”

For a single moment Rocket was tempted to say yes. But as he did he started thinking more about Peter. How he bobbed his head and mouthed the words as he listened to his terran music. How he hung off Groot’s branches when he got bored. How he got this funny look on his face whenever he was focusing. How he got this fiery look in his eyes when he tried to fight. Or even how sometimes Rocket could catch him softly smiling as he fell asleep on his cot. How happy Peter made Groot… And instead of taking Yondu up on his offer he found himself saying,

“You don’t have to do that. We can take care of him.”

Yondu frowned and gave him a pointed look. “You sure?”

Rocket really wasn’t sure, but he nodded anyways. “Yeah we should be alright. Just a little change of plans, that’s all.”

“Ok…” Yondu said. Backing away from Rocket slowly. “I just wanted to warn you fellas about Ego.”

“Yeah, I’ll make sure Peter stays away from him.”

“Good… Good…” Yondu seemed unsure what to say next, but just before he left he turned back. “You’re a good man Rocket, you know that? I don’t care what you or anyone else says. Be good to the boy…”

And with that, he disappeared in a flash of light, and the Ravager’s ship finally flew away.

“I am groot?”

Rocket turned to see Groot and Peter both waiting by the door.

“Yeah, he’s gone.”

Peter still looked around the room for the blue man before carefully stepping in. “What the hell was that about?”

“Nothing you gotta worry about.” Rocket said, “Just a little change in plans. Apparently we aren’t sending ya to Ego.”

“You’re not?” Peter asked. Rocket couldn’t understand the look that passed Peter’s face. It was several things all at once.

“No… you’re staying with us.”

Rocket was nervous to see how Peter would react, but what he hadn’t been expecting was for the kid to start smiling.

“Really?”

“Yep,” Rocket replied. “We were going to send you to Ego but now we can’t. So I guess we’re just gonna keep ya kid.”

“I… I don’t mind.”

Grinning, Peter looked between Rocket and Groot. And Groot bent down two wrap them all in a hug.

“I am groot!”

“Yeah…” Rocket said, almost feeling like laughing. “Couldn’t of said it better myself!”

**Author's Note:**

> Hi! Thank you so much for reading! As mentioned above this was a gift! (BTW if your interested in writing feel free to check out my tumblr for more information, https://siodymph.tumblr.com/ )


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